Category Archives: All Aboard Florida

Brightline said Thursday it will begin introductory service of its higher-speed passenger trains the week of January 8 — but the company did not release train schedules or ticket prices.

The initial service will run between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. The MiamiCentral train station is scheduled to be ready within three months.

Parent company All Aboard Florida originally expected the $3 billion Brightline project would launch between Miami and West Palm Beach in the summer. Then it would extend to Orlando by 2020.

A variety of legal, financial and environmental challenges delayed the ambitious project in recent years.

When full service begins on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks, Brightline expects to run 16 round trips per day between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach with a travel time of about 30 minutes between each station.

When service is extended to Orlando, Brightline officials estimate the entire trip will take three hours.

Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway’s 8th annual Christmas Train was a huge success again this year.

FEC employees, customers and suppliers together raised $370,000 in donations to buy over 24,000 toys for distribution to children in need living in the communities along the network that FEC serves. The toys were distributed in partnership with the local Toys for Tots programs managed by the United States Marine Corps.

Santa and his FEC “elves” boarded the festively decorated Christmas Train, which departed from Jacksonville in the early hours of December 9th. The special train made eight stops along the 351-mile route to Miami. By the end of the day, over 1,600 children received a special gift from Santa as he visited with each of them personally to hear their Christmas wishes.

“We are extremely proud of the results from this year’s Christmas train,” said FEC President & CEO, Jim Hertwig. “It is because of this compassionate giving that so many children along the Florida East Coast Railway network will wake up Christmas morning with a gift from Santa.”

The Christmas Train is a 501c3 non-profit and is a favorite tradition among the FECR family and its suppliers and customers. FEC gives special thanks to all who donated this year.

“This is just one way we give back to the communities where we live and work,” said Hertwig. “We thank everyone who made this event possible.”

About Florida East Coast RailwayFlorida East Coast Railway is a 351-mile freight rail system located along the east coast of Florida and is the exclusive rail provider for PortMiami, Port Everglades, and Port of Palm Beach. FEC connects to the national railway system in Jacksonville, Florida, to move cargo originating or terminating there. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, FEC provides end-to-end intermodal solutions to customers who demand cost-effective and premium quality. For more information, visit www.fecrwy.com.

After several years of false hope — fueled primarily by bureaucratic delays at the federal level and the rail company’s inability to secure financing — two huge pieces of the puzzle recently fell into place for Brightline.

First, Brightline suddenly found buyers for the private-activity bonds it had been trying to peddle the past two years.

This, in turn, allows Brightline to proceed with its application for a $1.6 billion federal loan.

“This is the most critical and final step in the extension of Brightline’s service to Orlando, and we are excited to move forward with Phase 2,” said Brightline CEO Dave Howard in a news release.

He also noted the company looks forward to “starting construction north to Orlando in the first quarter of 2018.”

Can the Treasure Coast coexist with Brightline?

We shall see.

Our region is going to get really LOUD unless local officials take steps to pursue quiet zones. These are federally regulated safety upgrades — i.e., four-quadrant gates, raised medians and other channelizing devices — that restrict vehicles and allow trains to speed through crossings without sounding their horns.

To help facilitate our coexistence with the passenger rail service, local governments should turn their attention to the 75 at-grade crossings in our three-county area. There are 30 in Indian River, 25 in Martin and 20 in St. Lucie.

Installing quiet zones at critical crossings would mitigate the punishing noise pollution residents who live near these intersections can expect when Brightline trains begin running through our region.

The rail company has said it will begin limited service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale in the next few weeks. In preparation for the launch, it has been running simulated service with 10 daily round-trip trains, each one blaring its horn at crossings.

Like this:

All Aboard Florida’s Brightline is testing its BrightBlue train on a 3-mile stretch of track in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, the company said Thursday.

A Palm Beach Post reporter spotted the train, named for the color of its passenger cars, traveling north near the area of County Line Road in Tequesta Thursday afternoon.

A company official said the park offers a section of track that does not have any rail crossings. The testing plan has been approved by the Federal Railroad Administration, she said.

In recent weeks, Brightline has also tested the BrightBlue train along a 9-mile-stretch of track that runs between Park Place in West Palm Beach and Central Boulevard in Lantana. That section has multiple rail crossings.

Brightline last month launched a safety campaign designed to warn students and those living near the FEC corridor about the dangers of walking along train tracks.

The company has asked cities along the route to help promote the campaign, part of a national program called Operation Lifesaver, which is designed to reduce collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail crossings and prevent trespassing on or near railroad tracks.

Brightline has said it will start “pre-season” service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale in late July. Service between West Palm Beach and Miami is expected to begin in August.

A grand opening of the rail project is planned for mid-September, the company has said.

The company plans to hire 90 employees in the West Palm Beach area, Dave Howard, the company’s chief executive officer said Friday. Jobs include security officers, train attendants and guest service agents.

Those interested in applying should visit the company’s website, gobrightline.com/careers, to view a current list of openings, he added.

Howard, an executive from the sports and entertainment industry who joined Brightline’s team in March, said the company is focused on customer service and creating a “culture of care” for its passengers.

A grand opening of the rail project is planned for mid-September, the company has said.

The company has yet to release its ticket prices, but a Brightline official told members of the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization last week that the rates will be “competitive to the cost of driving your car.”

Brightline plans to eventually extend the service to Orlando.

Track work for the second phase of the project, which runs between West Palm Beach and Orlando, has not yet begun. Treasure Coast leaders are challenging that stretch of the project, and have filed a federal lawsuit to block bonds that the company had planned to use to pay for the construction.

Brightline officials have said it will take about 2 years from the start of construction for the company to complete the West Palm Beach to Orlando leg.

In South Florida, work on Brightline stations in West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale is nearly complete. Construction crews are expected to turn over the properties to Brightline officials within the next week or two, Howard said.

Testing on the company’s first two trains is underway. Two more trains are expected to arrive in West Palm Beach in the coming weeks.

Brightline officials have said the first phase of the quiet zone will be installed along an 11-mile stretch of track that runs from West Palm Beach to Lantana. The company has been testing its first train, called BrightBlue because of the color of its passenger cars, along that section of rail.

Brightline officials said Friday the quiet zone is expected to be in place between West Palm Beach and Boca at the time the company begins service this summer.

Work to install a quiet zone from West Palm Beach north to the county line won’t start until Brightline begins construction on its second phase, which will extend the passenger service to Orlando.

Brightline this month launched a safety campaign designed to warn students and those living near the FEC corridor about the dangers of walking along train tracks.

The company has asked cities along the route to help promote the campaign, part of a national program called Operation Lifesaver, which is designed to reduce collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail crossings and prevent trespassing on or near railroad tracks.

Brightline’s safety and security team is also planning to hold a meeting with local police and fire officials in the coming weeks.

Brightline this week heralded a milestone — arrival of its second train — and at the same time announced an apparent setback: When passenger service commences in July it will be even more limited than previously announced.

Instead of carryingpassengers between West Palm Beach and MiamiCentral, a sprawling downtown-Miami rail station with commercial, retail and residential space, Brightline in late July will begin service only between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

Service is to expand to Miami in late August, when work on MiamiCentral is complete, according to Brightline. Stations in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale are “nearing completion,” Brightline said in a news release.

The project’s second phase, full service to Orlando, is at least several years away, with service commencing in 2019 at the earliest, the company estimated in January. On Monday, Brightline said it is “currently finalizing permitting and will have a better idea of timing to Orlando after operations begin this summer.”

The project has faced opposition from Treasure Coast residents who say the railroad would endanger the public and the environment. It is facing lawsuits by Martin and Indian River counties.

Meanwhile, BrightPink, Brightline’s second completed passenger train, on Monday afternoon rolled through the Treasure Coast on the final leg of its trip from California to the railroad’s maintenance facility in West Palm Beach.

The four-car, two-locomotive train — named for its vivid hue — passed through Vero Beach at 3:45 p.m. and Stuart at 4:25 p.m. The passenger railroad’s first train, BrightBlue, was delivered Dec. 14, but rolled through the region in the early-morning hours.

BrightPink and BrightBlue are the first in Brightline’s five-train fleet that will run along the Florida East Coast Railway tracks, eventually between Miami and Orlando.

BrightRed, BrightOrange and BrightGreen are to be delivered from manufacturer Siemens’ Sacramento plant every six weeks, with all five trains assembled in West Palm Beach by early July, according to Michael Cahill, president, Rail Systems Division.

Brightline said it will hold a grand opening and official launch of the railroad in September.

This service could be a game-changer for jobseekers looking for work in one of the three station-holding cities, but who don’t necessarily want to live there. The relatively short commute on Brightline could make working in downtown Miami and living in downtown West Palm Beach seem a lot more appealing, when that commuter is facing traffic congestion along the I-95 corridor.

“Starting in 2017, Brightline will transform travel in southeast Florida,” said Brightline CMO Julie Edwards. “The new express passenger rail service will allow more people to live in West Palm Beach and work in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, or vice versa, seamlessly connecting the three cities in less than an hour and without the hassle of dealing with traffic.”

Critics say the increase in rail traffic along the Florida East Coast Railway corridor could create safety and traffic issues. FEC, sister company to All Aboard Florida, is partnering with state and local agencies to implement quiet zones and awareness campaigns along the line.

Bottom line: In the short-term, Palm Beach County will see more train traffic and a push to use Brightline as a commuter service. In the long-term, we could see more of Miami-Dade and Broward counties’ residents moving north to the West Palm Beach area to escape congestion.

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